BERLIN, February 20. /TASS/. The German government hushes up the real expenses incurred by the country due to the conflict in Ukraine, Steffen Kotre, a member of the Bundestag from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) faction, opined on Monday.
According to his bureau, the parliamentarian previously sent a written request to the German government to find out the costs of training the Ukrainian military. "The information provided [by the Cabinet] not only lacks information about the supply of ammunition, for example, such cutting-edge missile defense systems as IRIS-T, but it conceals the costs of training Ukrainian soldiers," Kotre said in a statement released on Monday.
As part of his written request, the politician learned that alone before February 3, 2023, about 18.5 million euros was spent additionally to train Ukrainian soldiers. "With this money last year, you could have given every first-grader in my state of Brandenburg, as well as in Saarland and Bremen, a tablet computer. Guns cannot stop killing, but education can prevent war," Kotre was quoted as saying. According to the German Cabinet, aid to Ukraine in 2022 amounted to two billion euros, while this year - to 2.2 billion euros.